Shopping cart attachments are well known in the art. A shopping cart attachment is typically attached to the handlebar of a shopping cart, and includes one or more convenience aids for shoppers. Such shopping cart attachments also typically include an advertisement or a sign thereon. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 2,895,243 to Hummer et al. which discloses a shopping cart attachment including a sign. Shopping cart attachments may also include an electronic display which may display a different message as the shopping cart passes different locations in the store. The different displays may be provided by radio transmitters at the different locations in the store.
It is also known to provide a calculator in a shopping cart attachment so that the shopper can compute the cost of bulk items or compute a running total of the items being purchased. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,543 to Bush et al. in which a shopping cart attachment includes a store directory, an advertisement and a calculator. Other shopping cart attachments having calculators are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,504 to Owlett and U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,701 to Amundson et al.
When a shopping cart attachment includes an advertisement and a calculator, the shopper tends to ignore the advertisement. When the advertisement is ignored, the purpose of the shopping cart attachment is at least partially defeated. In particular, although the shopping cart attachment is provided by the merchant for the convenience of the shopper, it is also provided to expose the shopper to the advertising material contained thereon. Exposure to the advertisement is particularly important when the shopper is in the store in which the advertised item may be purchased. Since the customer tends to ignore the advertising on the shopping cart, this advertising medium has been underutilized.